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Indecent representation of women: law to include digital media

The Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act of 1986 will be updated to include online media in its scope, the Times of India reports. The IRWA was originally introduced to curb demeaning representations of women in mainstream media like print publications. The Act essentially forbids objectification of women and their depiction in a way that is "likely to deprave, corrupt or injure the public morality or morals." The UPA government first recommended this amendment, and introduced an updated Bill of the IRWA in 2012 to do it. The government said in its release that a "Centralized Authority" will be created to process cases under this law. The members of this authority are: a member from the National Council for Women; a Press Council of India representative; an I&B Ministry bureaucrat; an Advertising Standards Council of India representative; and "one member having experience of working on women issues". The release specifically points to "over-the-top (OTT) services" like Instagram, WhatsApp, Skype, Viber, and Chat On, which will soon be subject to this law. The penalty for this law will be similar to that provided by the IT Act, the Women and Child Development Ministry said. That could mean stiff penalties and jail time, if the list of penalties under the IT Act is any indication. MediaNama's take This can backfire. It's happened before. While the draconian Section 66-A is no longer around, other parts of the IT Act still give the government a broad mandate to bring cases against people who it…

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